Respira WordPress MCP Server

A catalog of 319 MCP tools and 277 WordPress Abilities across 17 page builders. The AI infrastructure layer for WordPress.
Element-level editing, full page creation, HTML and Figma to native builder conversion, design directions, site memory, accessibility and security scanning, per-tool governance, snapshots and rollback.

Website • Docs • Plugin • MCP setup • Skills • Support

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What this repo is, what it isn't

This repository is the public listing for the Respira WordPress MCP server. The server source ships on npm as @respira/wordpress-mcp-server. That wrapper code is MIT-licensed and you are welcome to read, fork, or vendor it.

The server is a client for the Respira WordPress plugin, not a standalone product. To do real work it needs:

• The Respira for WordPress plugin installed on your site
• A valid Respira API key bound to a license

The plugin is not open source. It is distributed under a commercial license. Free trial at respira.press, no card required. Paid plans start at 9 EUR a month.

In short: the wrapper you npx -y is open. The product behind it is not, and that is deliberate. If you want a self-contained "AI edits WordPress" stack with no commercial dependency, this is not it. The plugin is built and maintained full time by one person, and the license fees are how that happens.

For security reports see SECURITY.md.

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What makes Respira different

Most WordPress MCP servers wrap the REST API. They can create posts and pages, but they cannot touch page builder content, which is where the actual site lives.

Respira ships a WordPress plugin that gives an AI agent native access to the builder's own data structures, plus the safety rails that make writing to a live site survivable.

Capability	Respira	REST API wrappers
Page builder support	17 builders	None
Element-level find / update / move / remove	Yes	No
Build full pages from a declarative structure	Yes	No
Convert HTML or Figma to native builder output	Yes	No
Design directions (site-wide art direction)	Yes	No
Site memory that persists across agent sessions	Yes	No
Accessibility scan and auto-fix	Yes	No
Security audit and core hardening	Yes	No
Snapshot before every write, rollback anytime	Yes	No
Duplicate-before-edit safety	Yes	No
Per-tool governance from wp-admin	Yes	No
WordPress Abilities API and WebMCP	Yes	Rare
WooCommerce (products, orders, inventory, storefront)	Yes (add-on)	No

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Quick start

1. Install the WordPress plugin

Download from respira.press/plugin, upload to WordPress, activate, then go to Respira > API Keys and generate a key.

2. Connect your AI tool

The fastest path is the generated command at respira.press/dashboard/mcp, which fills in your site and key for you. Manual configs below.

Claude Code

claude mcp add respira-wordpress -- npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "respira-wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@respira/wordpress-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Create .cursor/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "respira-wordpress": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@respira/wordpress-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Codex, Windsurf, and other clients

Same shape as above. Codex uses TOML in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.respira-wordpress]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@respira/wordpress-mcp-server"]

Or let add-mcp detect your tool:

npx add-mcp "npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server"

ChatGPT and remote clients

Respira also runs as a hosted remote MCP server with OAuth, so no local Node process is needed. Setup instructions per client are at respira.press/mcp.

3. Add your site

Run the wizard:

npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --setup

Or write ~/.respira/config.json yourself:

{
  "sites": [
    {
      "id": "my-site",
      "name": "My WordPress Site",
      "url": "https://yoursite.com",
      "apiKey": "respira_your-api-key",
      "default": true
    }
  ]
}

Restart your AI tool and start editing.

Hitting a client tool limit?

Some MCP clients cap the number of active tools, often at 100. Respira advertises far more than that, so add enabledTools to your config and only those appear in the listing:

{
  "sites": [{ "...": "..." }],
  "preferences": {
    "enabledTools": [
      "respira_read_page",
      "respira_update_page",
      "respira_list_pages",
      "respira_find_element",
      "respira_update_element",
      "respira_build_page",
      "respira_get_site_context",
      "respira_get_builder_info"
    ]
  }
}

Site management tools (respira_list_sites, respira_switch_site, respira_get_active_site) are always included. Unlisted tools still work if called directly. The filter only controls what is advertised.

On top of that, the server filters the tool list by what your site actually runs. A Divi site with no WooCommerce does not see the commerce tools. Detection fails open: if it cannot tell, you get the full list.

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17 supported page builders

level is Respira's write depth, not the builder's quality.

Builder	Level	Notes
Bricks	Deep	Global classes, theme styles, ACSS, components, query loops, BEM linting
Elementor	Full	Native API, runtime control registry
Divi	Full	Divi 4 and Divi 5, 40+ module definitions on Divi 5
Oxygen	Full	Classic and Oxygen 6
Gutenberg	Full	Block registry, FSE templates, patterns, navigation
Flatsome	Full	Round-trip shortcode editing, 55-element intelligence
Beaver Builder	Smart	Tree utility, static schemas
Breakdance	Smart	Tree utility, static schemas
Brizy	Smart	Tree utility
WPBakery	Smart	Tree utility
Spectra	Smart	Block target
Kadence Blocks	Smart	Block target
GenerateBlocks	Smart	Block target
GreenShift	Smart	Block target
Visual Composer	Smart	Limited write
Thrive Architect	Smart	Text edits
SeedProd	Smart	Audit only

Mixed-builder sites are handled per page, not per site.

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What the tools cover

The full reference lives in the docs. The families:

Family	What it does
Pages, posts, custom posts	Read and write with builder-aware payloads, outlines, duplicates, translations
Element operations	Find, update, move, duplicate, reorder, remove single elements by ID, type, class, or content text
Page building	respira_build_page from a declarative structure, plus one-line widget shortcuts (heading, button, image, form, slider, pricing table, and more)
Conversion	HTML to native builder with CSS extraction, responsive mapping, and a fidelity score. Figma to Bricks, Divi, Elementor, or Gutenberg via the bundled skills
Design directions	Save, apply, activate, export a site-wide art direction. Preview before commit, apply the same direction to another site
Design tokens	Create, update, import DTCG tokens, sync a design system into the theme
Site memory	respira_remember, respira_forget, respira_list_memory. Facts about the site that survive between agent sessions
Playbooks	Named, reusable procedures an agent can create, fetch, and run
Snapshots	Automatic before every write, diff two snapshots, restore any of them
Analysis	SEO, AEO, readability, RankMath, structured data, images, Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed
Accessibility	Scan a page, list scans, apply fixes
Security	Security audit, validation, core hardening, debug log reading
Theme and templates	FSE templates, template parts, patterns, navigation, theme builder templates, theme file read and write
Site structure	Custom post types, taxonomies, ACF field groups, menus, mega menus, terms
Media	Upload, sideload from URL, batch metadata updates, Openverse stock image search with auto-attribution
Bulk operations	Up to 100 pages per call, with mandatory snapshots
Multi-site	List, switch, and act on many sites from one config
WooCommerce	105 tools in the paid add-on: catalog, pricing, inventory, orders, storefront design

All tools use respira_* names. The legacy wordpress_* aliases are deprecated and will be removed.

What the numbers mean

Counts on this page describe the catalog on a fully enabled site, not what your client will list.

Figure	Count
MCP tools, whole product	319
MCP tools included in every plan	214
WooCommerce tools (paid add-on)	105
WordPress Abilities	277
Unique tools and abilities, whole product	320

A live tools/list returns fewer than 319, and that is correct behaviour rather than a missing feature. The server context-filters the catalog per site, so Bricks tools never reach an Elementor site and the commerce tools stay hidden without WooCommerce. A block-theme site with no page builder sees roughly 28 fewer core tools.

The Abilities registry is not context-filtered, so on the same site the abilities total legitimately exceeds the tools total. The two are not directly comparable.

Bundled skills

The package ships Respira's Claude Code skills, which are the recipes that make the tools useful together: page-builder migrations (Divi to Bricks, Elementor to Gutenberg, WPBakery to Bricks, and others), Figma-to-builder conversion, site audits, SEO and AEO passes, and WooCommerce workflows.

npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server install-skills

Browse the catalog at respira.press/skills.

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Safety

Writing to a live production site is the whole problem. The rails:

1. Snapshot before every mutation. Restore with respira_restore_snapshot, compare with respira_diff_snapshots.
2. Duplicate before edit. The original stays untouched while the agent works on a copy.
3. Per-tool governance. Admins enable or disable individual tools from wp-admin. Governance applies to the REST path, the Abilities API path, and WebMCP alike.
4. Read-only mode. Point an agent at a site and let it look without letting it write.
5. Activity log. Every call is recorded and readable from wp-admin and from respira_list_activity.

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WordPress AI ecosystem

Respira works with the official WordPress AI stack, not around it.

Path	How it works	Requirements
Standalone MCP (this package)	npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server	Node 18+, Respira plugin
Remote MCP	Hosted endpoint with OAuth, no local process	Respira plugin, account
WordPress Abilities API	277 abilities registered, auto-discovered	WP 6.9+, Respira plugin
MCP Adapter	Abilities exposed over WP-CLI STDIO	WP 6.9+, MCP Adapter plugin
WebMCP	Browser-native MCP via the Chrome Abilities API	Chrome 146+, Respira plugin

Inhale is the free companion plugin that registers a small set of Abilities with no Respira account at all, if you want to try the Abilities path before anything else.

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Install options

npx

npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server

Zero install, good for trying it. The downside is that the npx cache can corrupt itself after an interrupted install, a disconnected external drive, or antivirus quarantine, and the resulting ENOENT errors are confusing. See Troubleshooting.

Global install (most stable)

npm install -g @respira/wordpress-mcp-server
respira-wordpress-mcp

Avoids the npx cache entirely. The better choice for daily use.

CLI options

Flag	Alias	Description
--setup	-s	Interactive setup wizard
--list	-l	List configured sites
--test	-t	Test the connection
--doctor	-d	Health diagnostics, add --json for machine-readable output
--install-config		Write the MCP config for a detected client
install-skills		Copy the bundled skills into your local skills directory
--stdio		STDIO transport for the MCP Adapter
--version	-v	Print the version
--help	-h	Help

Environment variables

export WORDPRESS_URL="https://yoursite.com"
export WORDPRESS_API_KEY="respira_your_key"

RESPIRA_CONFIG_FILE and RESPIRA_CONFIG_B64 are the multi-site alternatives.

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Health check

npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --doctor

Checks Node version, config file, site connectivity, plugin version, API compatibility, and available updates, and reports pass or fail per check with something you can act on. Add --json for CI pipelines.

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Troubleshooting

Windows: 'npx' is not recognized

Use the full path:

{ "command": "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\npx.cmd", "args": ["-y", "@respira/wordpress-mcp-server"] }

Or install globally with npm install -g @respira/wordpress-mcp-server and use { "command": "respira-wordpress-mcp" }.

Connection failed

1. Check the API key at WordPress > Respira > API Keys
2. The URL must include https://
3. The plugin must be activated
4. Check whether your host blocks the REST API

respira_diagnose_connection reports all four in one call.

HTML instead of JSON, or a homepage redirect on every call

Some sites have plugin or theme rewrite rules that catch /wp-json/[anything] and rewrite the path to index.php without the ?rest_route= query var. WordPress then 301-redirects to the homepage (you will see x-redirect-by: WordPress in the chain) and the MCP server gets HTML where it expected JSON.

The server auto-detects this, retries the call as ?rest_route=... against the site root, and if that returns JSON it routes every later call the same way for the rest of the session, with one stderr warning on first activation.

If you already know the rewrite shadowing is in play, skip the probe with forceRestRoute:

{
  "sites": [
    {
      "id": "my-site",
      "url": "https://yoursite.com",
      "apiKey": "respira_your-api-key",
      "default": true,
      "forceRestRoute": true
    }
  ]
}

respira_diagnose_connection probes both forms and reports rest_route_fallback_worked, rest_route_fallback_active, and force_rest_route_configured.

Tools not showing up

1. Restart the AI tool completely, not just the window
2. Validate the JSON syntax in the config file
3. Confirm the config file location for your client
4. Run npx @respira/wordpress-mcp-server --test

If the client caps active tools, see enabledTools above.

ENOENT errors mentioning /_npx/ or node_modules

The npx cache is corrupted. Common causes: interrupted install, external drive disconnected mid-install, antivirus quarantine, or npm cache clean running while npx was active.

# 1. Switch to a global install, most stable
npm install -g @respira/wordpress-mcp-server
# then use "command": "respira-wordpress-mcp" with no npx wrapper

# 2. Or clear the npx cache and let it rebuild
npx clear-npx-cache
npx -y @respira/wordpress-mcp-server

# 3. Or clear the whole npm cache
npm cache clean --force

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Security

API key validation happens server side in the WordPress plugin. The MCP server passes credentials through and does not store or validate them.

Report vulnerabilities to [email protected]. Full policy in SECURITY.md.

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Links

• Website
• Documentation
• Download the plugin
• MCP setup
• Skills catalog
• Abilities
• WooCommerce add-on
• Accessibility scanner add-on
• Support

Where to find Respira

Directory	Listing
npm	@respira/wordpress-mcp-server
Official MCP Registry	io.github.webmyc/respira-wordpress
Smithery	smithery.ai
Glama	glama.ai/mcp/servers
mcp.so	mcp.so
cursor.directory	cursor.directory

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License

MIT © Respira

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319 tools in the catalog. 17 builders. The AI infrastructure layer for WordPress.
respira.press